There's a Difference
by Mustsleep
Summary: What is the difference between a boy and a man? Naruto, Hokage of Konoha reflects upon it. Slightly dark.


There's a Difference. 

Syn: What is the difference between a boy and a man? Naruto, hokage of Konoha reflects upon it. Slightly dark.

Please Enjoy and Review. Mustsleep Z.z

Someone once asked me what the difference was between a boy and a man. I answered that the latter had enough will and power to protect his precious people. I was wrong, very wrong, at least to a point. A boy does anything and everything to fulfill their dreams and promises. A man knows when to let them go for the sake of those he cares about.

My eyes watched the picture on the desk. The copy-nin's crinkled eye-smile stared back at me; I hadn't seen him truly smile in years. He hadn't read those orange books in years either. I could feel a smile almost reach my lips, that stupid book. Now his nose was always stuck in a scroll, in paperwork, or something to keep his mind busy. To make him forget, or at least ignore, all the pain caused by those letters engraved on stone. I could hear the man now, outside my office, the pen scratching against the paper at a consistently fast speed. I was surprised he hadn't kicked the hay yet or gone off the anbu charter, the old geezer. He was stealing all of my work. If only Baa-chan had, had him then. I missed that old woman.

My eyes focused upon the dark eyes; dark, empty eyes of the boy who stood next to the grinning thing in an orange jumpsuit. I remembered the hollowness in them. I remembered how the lightning reflected in them, to reveal the fire, the anger, the hatred. I remembered how the dark pools swirled red in a death glare. The fight then began, the fight was a blur. But the blood, the blood was not… He had flinched for the one second I hadn't. His entire lower half was ripped to shreds. The blood covered both of us. His lips flickered into a smile; his eyes were looking far beyond me. "We'll meet again." He had whispered. "Brother."

The picture frame fell down at the touch of a pale finger. The anbu operative had already removed the mask from his face and was staring at me with a look akin to pity, no not pity, sorrow, shared sorrow. "Hokage-sama." The black haired man bowed. He didn't call anybody by nicknames anymore…Not since she died… I guess it was his own way of grieving.

She was the apprentice of the fifth Hokage, the head medic of Konoha hospital, the woman who could crush mountains with a finger, the flower of Team Seven… such a beautiful flower… Some people look asleep when they die. She did not. Her bubblegum pink hair had paled to a powdery, white substance; as though she were an old woman. Her skin held no cheerful glow like it had when she was alive; it was white as though it had been bleached. We buried her out near a cherry tree at the edge of the graveyard, it didn't bloom after that…We've tried everything to make it bloom… I had to give the speech... Baa-chan wouldn't leave the tower. She sort-of just stared out the window, not really seeing me, or anybody for that matter. She didn't drink that day, or on any day of the anniversary after that. I never saw a tear fall from her face though, but her eyes got a glassy look in them and I'd know not to say anymore.

Kakashi had been the one to etch both of their names in the stone though. They were his students, so it was his duty…at least that's what he said. He needed the finality that it brought; it was his own way of coping. I was living the reality already, I had watched both die. Team Seven killed each other with their own hands, with all the power I had, I could not save them and in one case it led to destruction. "I'm sorry you ended up like me," Kakashi had murmured almost quiet enough that I almost missed it. But I wasn't like him, he hadn't killed his teammates, he might have had some drops of blood on his hand, but he did not kill them, he wasn't like me.

"Naruto."

I looked up into the black eyes of the anbu leader. The man's face was twisted for control of emotion before it calmed into his famed, blank, poker face. I shook my head to cast away such thoughts. I was the leader; I would not let my people down like I did them. I grabbed the hat from the desk and rested it upon my head. I may or may not see them again. But if I did, I hoped it would have been in a better time, a different place than this.

I smiled at the pale skinned man, who returned it with a fake one of his own. Even after all this time, I still wanted to swipe that look off his face, but that would be too much like her. I glanced behind him at the other three operatives. They had once been my students, once been my shorter students, and they never had to go through my own tribulation. I nodded to them. They were no longer students, they were shinobi, powerful shinobi.

I glanced down at the picture frame and placed my hand on top of it, keeping it down. I was no longer that boy in the picture. I was now a man. A man who could protect his precious people.

"Report."


End file.
